Unexpected
by Halle Alexis
Summary: It's funny how friendship and love seems to sneak up on you sometimes, coming slowly or all at once when you least expect it. Vic and Branch find common ground in each other when they don't have anyone else. Eventually, they might find a little more than just that.


**This is my first Longmire story and it's also the longest work I've ever published (: I started off a huge Cady/Branch fan and though I still am, Vic/Branch have taken up a special place for me, too. There just aren't enough stories for them. This has been in my head for a few weeks and I finally got in down on paper, so I would love to know what you think.**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own anything.**

Unexpected

It isn't perfect. It isn't conventional. It isn't any of those things, but sometimes love doesn't fit a mold. Funny, she thinks, how it seems to fit them so exactly. It comes slowly or all at once, unexpected and unassuming. It happens in the background and when you're least looking for it most of the time. Sometimes, it even happens when you're married to someone else.

And damn it if that doesn't just give the kick in the ass of discovery a cloak of guilt to weigh it down. Sean is still her husband, even if only on paper and only then until the divorce goes through; even if he doesn't care that she gave up her whole life to move to the middle-of-nowhere Wyoming and put everything she had into making it work just for him to take another transfer and sleep with the first bimbo he meets. He might be a lying dirtbag, but he's still her husband.

It's not like she meant for this to happen. It wasn't love at first sight. It wasn't even really friendship in the beginning. Perhaps a mutual desire for companionship when they were both feeling a little less than okay is what started it.

It most certainly was not a relationship Vic was looking for one night at the office when she was alone and couldn't seem to bear the thought of going home to an empty house. Not when she's angry and sad and disappointed whenever she steps inside. The muted thud of footsteps in the hallway breaks the monotony of silence somewhere after dinnertime, but she barely pays any attention until Branch is stepping into the room and stops short at the sight of her.

"Vic?" It comes out as a question, but somehow he thinks he already knows the answer. The look in her eyes today has matched the feeling he's been carrying around in his chest since Cady told him she was going back to Chicago.

It pulls her back, just a little, from the rare abyss of self-pity she was indulging in.

"Hey, guess I lost track of time. What are you doing here so late?" Her voice is even and she's satisfied to note she can't find a trace of the catch that has settled itself in her throat.

He wonders if she knows he's lying when he shrugs off some excuse about thinking he'd left his phone in his desk earlier. The truth is he couldn't settle at home, which is not something Branch Connally is used to, and saw her truck when he'd went out driving. It doesn't matter that they're not exactly close or that she'd probably punch him for saying he wanted to check on her, because regardless of the time of day they do have each other's backs. If she does notice though, she doesn't call him out on it. Instead, she keeps uncharacteristically quiet as he asks her if she's ready to head out and follows along as she makes her way outside.

She doesn't like feeling this way, Vic thinks to herself as she cries herself to sleep that night. She absolutely loathes it. She just can't seem to pull herself out of it though; at least not yet. When she wakes up with bleary eyes and the puffy feeling that only a crying jag can give you, she tells herself it's perfectly reasonable to be upset. Even if she doesn't like it, she has every right to feel ripped to pieces for a little while. Now if she could just find her mad, then everything would feel better. This is what she ends up telling herself every day for weeks on end. She wants to be angry. She wants to be pissed off. Instead, she just feels hollow.

That weekend when she walks into the Red Pony, Vic finds herself sitting down next to Branch at the bar for no other reason than he looks like he doesn't want to be alone as badly as she does. They exchange small talk as usual, but mostly pass the time in silence. He notices she's no longer wearing her wedding ring, though he doesn't mention it, because he figures if she wanted to talk about it then little would stop her. Rather, he buys her another drink; it seems fitting to his mind if the situation is what he thinks it to be.

"Sean's been having an affair. He wants a divorce." The words bubble from her without her really meaning for them to, but the truth is she just wants to tell someone. She wants to not feel so alone in her head and a small part of her thinks that maybe Branch will understand.

"He's a damn idiot then." The way he says it makes it seem like it's nothing but simple fact. Other people would understand too, she's sure, and they would be sympathetic, but they would be too much for her right now. She doesn't want to talk about it yet, she just wants it out in the open, and to feel like her feelings are reasonable.

Vic knows she's made a good decision when he says, "Cady's leaving for Chicago next week. She wants us to stay friends." This time his voice sounds unsure; she isn't sure she's ever heard him like that before.

"She doesn't know what she's losing." Vic nearly surprises herself when she realizes it's the absolute truth.

They continue on this way, meeting for meals or just to get out and being there for each other as they work their way through mutual losses. As they learn more about each other, it comes as a surprise to both of them how well they truly get along. How they just seem to get each other most of the time, and how even when they argue it seems to work well for them.

When they're together Vic almost doesn't think about the pain that lingers in her thoughts of a failed marriage.

One day while getting ready for work she catches sight of a picture of her and Sean on their wedding day sitting on the table by the door where it's always been. Today it doesn't bring with it a haze of regret, but suddenly the anger that has been simmering quietly under the surface and hiding beneath other emotions comes barreling up. She's hurling the frame against the opposite wall before she's consciously thought to do so and the shattering of glass gives way like the glitch that's been hovering inside her. The outburst doesn't change anything, but it sure as hell makes her feel better.

She doesn't deserve this. She doesn't have to keep feeling like this. And with that realization, Vic decides she won't. The cracks that have been aching in her chest might not be weaved back together yet, but they aren't pulling further apart anymore either. She can't just flip a switch and make everything alright again, but she can stop wallowing and start moving forward.

Finally, months after Sean told her he wanted a divorce, Vic climbs into bed with contentment in her eyes and it hits her that Sean and their marriage no longer takes up significant space in her thoughts or her heart. When she does think about it, it doesn't hurt as much as it used to. And when she meets Branch for lunch the next day, as they have taken to doing regularly, he comments that it's good to see the fire in her eyes again as they banter.

She looks at him and can see the man that she never took the time to before this storm began. He's her friend. He's been there every time she's needed him over the last months. She supposes they've been there for each other.

"Yeah? Must be my irritation with you." She responds, reveling again at the way he makes her laugh.

"Irritation, huh? I think maybe we're good for each other." He quips with that crooked smile.

"Maybe we are." Who would've thought?

It almost seems to sneak up on her. She knows the feelings are changing, but she still gets a jolt of surprise at work one day when Branch asks if she wants to go get dinner after their shift. The way Ruby's eyes slant toward them in the seconds it takes her to agree seems to sum up the feeling. Vic doesn't understand it really, because they've done this countless times. They haven't hid anything; there's nothing to hide. They're friends. She's sure a lot of people know they're friends. It should be obvious to Walt they've grown closer at work and when everyone is out together. Henry probably knows they spend a lot of time together outside of work, too, because Henry seems to know something about everything. Even Cady knows, because Branch has said he's mentioned her when they talk occasionally. The way he asks this time sounds different to her, though.

Somewhere between her heart dropping to her feet after he's grazed by a stray bullet and calling him in the middle of the night to come over because she thinks she's going to die if she vomits just _one _more time Vic realizes she might be in trouble. From the look she often finds reflected in his eyes, she thinks he might be, too.

It makes her angry with Sean all over again when she feels the twinges of guilt over loving someone else while still married to him. It shouldn't matter. She should be free to feel and do as she pleases. Branch makes her happy though, and that might have never happened if all the rest didn't. She's waited this long though, and when she looks at him she knows she can wait just a little bit longer.

When she receives her finalized divorce papers in the mail he insists they do something to commemorate the day. Vic makes dinner for them at her place and when she walks him to the door that night he kisses her.

Just like that it all becomes worth it. The pain, anger, and waiting don't matter. Maybe it isn't perfect and maybe it came unexpectedly, but she's happy. They're happy.

"Still find me irritating?" He grins when they part.

"Less when you kiss me." She laughs and kisses him again.

**Please let me know what you think! Thanks!**


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